Ahmed Saad, the 20-year-old heterosexual Egyptian journalist, insists that he was only trying to help further gay rights — or at least provide a mainstream look at them — by posing to be a homo himself in the process of writing his new novel Shab Takaya, or Lady Boy. But does playing gay on hook-up sites like Manjam.com for the purposes of “research” — and then fictionalizing the stories of the men he met — go too far? Oh please. Saad was just laying the groundwork for a tome that is “the first Egyptian book that seeks to defend homosexuals on the basis of Islam,” reports Al-Masry Al-Youm. “The book’s primary purpose, Saad said during the interview, is to convince its intended audience–heterosexuals in Egyptian society–to sympathize with the plight of Egypt’s homosexuals and put an end to their societal persecution.” But what’s this about still tolerating the execution of gays if they don’t turn straight? That is the real problem.
Released in December, Shab Takaya emphasizes the need of Islamic society to accept gays. But what about gays who refuse to go straight? Off with their heads, apparently.
Yet whether Saad’s work actually helps serve that purpose is a matter of interpretation, which explains why since the book’s publication, Saad has fielded insults not only from homophobic heterosexuals opposed to conciliatory aspects of Saad’s message, but also from homosexuals who believe that the writer’s ideas only serve to further stigmatize them. Based on the writings of the Quran, many Muslims believe that homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. Saad sees this attitude as a disastrous textual misinterpretation, and reminds us that God only punishes those who refuse to atone for their sins. Instead of condemning homosexuals, Saad told Al-Masry Al-Youm, we must “adopt a merciful approach and help them to repent.” Nevertheless, the book suggests the possibility that homosexuals may be executed if they refuse to commit to a heterosexual way of life. If you think homosexuals should be persecuted, he writes, “don’t forget that God” waited until “after they refused his guidance to sentence them to death.”
Yet whether Saad’s work actually helps serve that purpose is a matter of interpretation, which explains why since the book’s publication, Saad has fielded insults not only from homophobic heterosexuals opposed to conciliatory aspects of Saad’s message, but also from homosexuals who believe that the writer’s ideas only serve to further stigmatize them. Based on the writings of the Quran, many Muslims believe that homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. Saad sees this attitude as a disastrous textual misinterpretation, and reminds us that God only punishes those who refuse to atone for their sins. Instead of condemning homosexuals, Saad told Al-Masry Al-Youm, we must “adopt a merciful approach and help them to repent.” Nevertheless, the book suggests the possibility that homosexuals may be executed if they refuse to commit to a heterosexual way of life. If you think homosexuals should be persecuted, he writes, “don’t forget that God” waited until “after they refused his guidance to sentence them to death.”
Is this the best we can expect out of Egypt, a country where homosexuality, while not explicitly illegal, is criminalized under “immoral and indecent behavior” regulations?: A self-professed “gay activist” who actually does not want gay people to be accepted, but to turn straight. “I do not support homosexuals who do not want to change,” says Saad. “I support those who do. I know that my view isn’t Western and may seem backward to you, but it’s my belief.”
tallest
Fuck you, Saad.
Skeptical Cicada
Oh, look at him run and hide behind the skirt of anti-imperialism.
The problem isn’t that his attitude is non-Western; the problem is that his attitude is factually ignorant.
The laws of gravity apply to Egyptians and Westerners alike, and homosexuality can’t be “cured” in Egyptians any more than it can be “cured” in Westerners.
Ogre Magi
What a turd!
Sarah Millers
Why do we even care what religion or government thinks about our relationships? Get government out of marriage and we will all be better off. More freedom for everyone. Government free marriage now!
Danny
And these people really wonder why billions of people draw cartoons of Mohammad and Allah whenever they hear backwards stuff like this.
It is pretty gay in the literal homosexual-definition sense if you bend over and stick your butt in the air higher than your head; it really is hard to take anything seriously when you assume a sex position like that over and over again. And then you segregate the sexes on top of it so you are bending over and presenting yourself for mounting in the presence of other men. That is not something a heterosexual male would concoct. No one is fooled. Heterosexuals have no rational reason to segregate men and women in daily life.
Sapphocrat
@tallest: What you said, to the nth degree.
ahmed saad
Shahu started to write my book I was very honest with myself before to be honest with others was lighter than any Aizhaat you accuse me or other gay Banny
This is Emily to connect with you and answer any questions
[email protected]
Regards
Protect Saad, author of ” shab takaya “
tallskin2
This is the typical position of “liberal” islam. It’s the same fascism but with a smile wrapped around it.
With a smile or not, this particularly vicious fascist wing of the three abrahamic middle eastern sky pixie religions, will still hang you if you refuse to accept their bullshit.
Throbert McGee
People jumping to condemn Saad’s backwardness might want to consider that his book is nearly unprecedented in Egyptian publishing.
According to a slightly different version of this story that was written by the same journalist (Jordan Gerstler-Holton) but in the Jerusalem Post, the Saad book may have only been the second of its kind to be published within Egypt:
“[Saad’s] pleas for greater, albeit emphatically limited social tolerance echo ones made in Mostafa Fathi’s bestseller, Balad al-Awlad (Country of Boys), published in late 2009, though Fathi defended homosexuals using secular notions of individual liberty, not strict interpretations of Islam.
…the Fathi book had succeeded in breaking the barrier when introducing the subject to Egyptian audiences one year [before Saad’s].”
So while it’s tempting to dismiss Saad as repackaged Exodus/NARTH garbage, you need to remember that in the US and other Western countries, there have been hundreds and perhaps thousands of books condemning and repudiating Exodus’s “pray away the gay” position — while Ahmed Saad’s novel is arguably the **secondmost-tolerant** book ever printed in Egypt’s very, very short and recent history of challenging homophobia.
Throbert McGee
People jumping to condemn Saad’s backwardness might want to consider that his book is nearly unprecedented in Egyptian publishing.
According to a slightly different version of the Al Masry Al Youm story that was written by the same journalist (Jordan Gerstler-Holton) but in the Jerusalem Post, the Saad book may have only been the second of its kind to be published within Egypt:
So while it’s tempting to dismiss Saad as repackaged Exodus/NARTH garbage, you need to remember that in the US and other Western countries, there have been hundreds and perhaps thousands of books condemning and repudiating Exodus’s “pray away the gay” position — while Ahmed Saad’s novel is arguably the secondmost-tolerant book ever printed in Egypt’s very, very short and recent history of challenging homophobia.
Throbert McGee
Sorry sorry about about the DP! (I wanted to add a direct link to the Jerusalem Post story.)
Throbert McGee
By the way (since I looked it up earlier this evening), the Koran itself does not have any verse equivalent to the notorious Leviticus 20:13 (“if a man lies with a man as with a woman, they shall both be put to death”). The nearest that the Koran comes to saying that death is a fitting punishment for homosexuality is in sura 7:80-84, which says that “Lut’s people” (i.e., Sodom and Gomorrah) engaged in male homosexuality and were subsequently destroyed by a deadly rain of stones from heaven. However, in this case it is very explicitly God who performs the stoning, and not mortal men.
But there are several hadiths (i.e., the traditional “sayings and deeds of Muhammad” that are external to the Quran) in which Muhammad exhorts faithful Muslims to execute homosexuals, using language almost identical to Leviticus 20:13, including the detail that both the active and passive partner must be killed. And while the hadiths are not as “infallible” as the Quran itself, many of them are nonetheless considered to be reliable words of Muhammad, and are thus authoritative and binding on Muslims.
tallskin2
@Throbert McGee
I am not sure I understand if you’re saying we should be pathetically grateful, or what??
Hatem
well guys i just need to correct the translation of the title of the this novel it’s not mean (lady boy)
it’s a very impolite word very common between str8 ppl in egypt to describe the gay ppl
pls don’t support some one like this person
he is real homophopian person
i chatted to him and he desribe us as sick ppl and we need to be treated otherwise he can’t accepet the homosexual idea
he is against the homosexual ppl and he talk only from the quraan view and when i asked him to give me one prove from the quraan says that we had to be punished as we r homosexuals
he started to get me in a snaky ways replies and not str8 answers
this person is a rasist person don’t believe him any more!!!
Rooney
@Hatem: Thanks, Hatem, the asshole bottomfeeder basically got away with a book called faggot and got labeled a “gay activist” so that steaming turd of a book of his would sell.